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GRAD STUDENT WITH DYSLEXIA EXAMINES INTERNET'S USEFULNESS

January 6, 2000

The Internet has brought comfort to many people in many different situations through its simple power to reassure them that someone else out there is going through the same experience. For Paulette Kessler, the Internet provided the emotional lift she needed to believe she could handle the challenges of a master's degree in communication despite being dyslexic. What better subject, then, for a master's thesis?

Kessler, a student at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J., is using the Internet to research how parents of other students with dyslexia feel about the Internet and dyslexia-related web sites. Her Internet survey looks for both what dyslexia web sites do best and what they can improve on. "My reasons are purely personal, as I am dyslexic and have been really moved by all that I have learned about myself through these web sites," Kessler told Special Education News. "When I first discovered dyslexia-related sites, I told my mother about them and she was also amazed at all the helpful information contained on them."

Mom also quickly became a convert to the powers of the Internet, lamenting it had not been around when Paulette was young. "She found it difficult to get information on dyslexia and felt alone in her parental struggles," Kessler said.

The survey questions address which online and offline sources are most helpful for parents, whether online sources are better than traditional information sources such as books and brochures, and how the child and the parent feel as a result of information gathered on the web. The survey also addresses parent opinions of teacher quality, their children's placement and transition issues from school to adult life. All parents of people with dyslexia are encouraged to participate in the survey, which had nearly 60 respondents by late December. The survey will close Feb. 14.

Kessler expects to finish her master's program in May, and she plans to share the survey results -- in fact, the entire thesis -- with the operators of dyslexia-related web sites, teacher and parent organizations and any survey respondents who request it. "Hopefully the findings of this survey will help to further improve the information provided on these sites and acknowledge a much used and needed communications medium regarding reading disabilities," she said.8